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Classroom Strategy Recommendations
Critical Issue: Poverty Don't assume that all students have the same access to resources. 1. When creating a lesson plan, try to incorporate activities that include multiple products so that students have a choice in what they create. Students love choices. It gives them a chance to contribute to their learning in a way that reflects their personal learning style. There are several different learning styles and you would be surprised by the diversity of learning styles within your classroom. Let's say that you are teaching a lesson on summarizing what's been read and you've just finished a short story. How can your students demonstrate comprehension and understanding of summarizing what is read? This is the perfect opportunity to provide students with a choice. Students could act out the summary (kinesthetic), they could write or give a short speech of a summary or turn it into a book review (verbal). Students could draw a representation of the summary such as a comic strip (visual), or work in a group to come up with a creative way to give the summary (interpersonal). For more information on learning styles, click on the following link: http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/ 2. Use activities in the classroom that don't require materials on the part of the students. For example, there is a great activity for younger students learning sight words, called "Sight Word Twister". All you need, as a teacher, is the twister game and a magic marker. Write sight words on the twister board and the spinner. Then have each student take a spin and put themselves through the twister game. Not only is it fun for younger kids, everyone can participate without having to feel left out because he or she does not have the materials to participate. This and other kinesthetic activities are a great way to get students out of their seats and engaged in reading lessons. They also provide students with something to do other than the dreaded worksheet. For more activities check out this link: http://thisreadingmama.com/day-1-kinesthetic-activities-for-teaching-reading/ Critical Issue: Lack of Schematic/Background knowledge Another issue with poverty is that students don't have access to the same information and background knowledge as those who come from a higher socioeconomic environment. These kids may not have ever stepped foot in a museum or been exposed to the arts or music, or libraries. Poverty is not the only reason why children do not have sufficient background information. Some students who come from different cultures may not be aware of other cultures' beliefs, practices, history, and/or idioms. 3. Building Schema- If they do not have the proper background information, teachers have to provide that information for students. Here is an example of implementation: Let's say that your class is reading the Mayflower Compact. Perhaps some of your students have no idea what the Compact is or why it was written. At this point, you can activate schema by doing several things. You can show pictures and talk about the voyage to Plymouth Rock while asking students to make personal connections to a “voyage”. English Language Learners (ELL) who are new to the United States would profit greatly from this activity. You can talk about the fears of the immigrants and the differences between their homeland and their new home. ELLs can absolutely make personal connections to these experiences. You could also show a video and have students discuss in groups what they have learned from it and maybe talk about their own “voyages”. From here, students will have a better understanding of what the Mayflower Compact is and be better prepared for the assignment ahead. Here is a great video about building schema: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4HHCgFmkcI